OutKast

Fun Fact: Outkast was the first southern rap group to receive 5 Mics in The Source magazine (for 1998’s Aquemini).

Claim to Fame: After signing to LaFace Records after leaving high school, Outkast released the 1994 single “Player’s Ball,� which rose to becoming the number one single on rap charts. In 2000, they released their fourth album Stankonia, which included the quirky single “Miss Jackson� which took their fame from the confines of hip hop to pop-land.

OutKast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, a city south of Atlanta, Georgia. They were originally known as The OKB but later changed the group's name to OutKast. The group's original musical style was a mixture of Dirty South and G-Funk. Since then, however, funk, soul, pop, electronic music, rock, spoken word poetry, jazz, and blues elements have been added to the group's musical palette. The duo consists of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. OutKast, Organized Noize, and schoolmates Goodie Mob formed the nucleus of the Dungeon Family organization.

OutKast signed to LaFace Records in 1992, becoming the label's first hip hop act and making their first appearance on the remix of labelmate TLC's "What About Your Friends". In 1994, they released their first single, "Player's Ball". The song's funky style, much of it accomplished with live instrumentation, was a hit with audiences. "Player's Ball" hit number-one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart. "No drugs or alcohol/so I can get the signal clear," he rhymes about himself in the single "ATLiens"


OutKast's third album Aquemini was released on September 29, 1998 and also reached the number-two position on the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States; its title was a combination of the zodiac signs of Big Boi and André. The album was widely praised as possibly the group's best material to date: when reviewed by popular hip-hop publication The Source, it received the much-coveted "5 Mics" rating.

Producing more material themselves, both Big Boi and André explored more eclectic subject matter, delving into sounds inspired by soul, trip hop, and electro music. The album featured production by Organized Noize and collaborations with Raekwon, funk pioneer and musical forebear George Clinton, and Goodie Mob.

In 1999, OutKast and LaFace Records were sued by Rosa Parks over the album's most successful radio single, which bore Parks' name as its title. The lawsuit alleged that the song misappropriated Parks' name, and also objected to some of the song's obscene language.

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